LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Precious metals exploration and development company ECR Minerals updated the market on its gold interests in Australia on Friday, reporting that at the Windidda Gold Project, its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary's applications over 1,600 square kilometres of the Yilgarn Craton, made in January were "progressing".
The AIM-traded firm said all nine exploration licence applications had now been advertised in line with local requirements, with the company closely monitoring the tenement application process, which was being handled through a local tenement management consultant.

It said it had been approached by a listed mineral exploration company seeking to farm into the project, and although it had not decided to proceed with the farm-in proposal at the current time, the board said it was "encouraged" to see the interest being shown by third parties at an early stage.

At the Creswick Gold Project in Victoria, ECR said the whole-of-bag testing process had now been completed successfully, with remaining samples sent to the laboratory for assay testing

Partial assay results, released on 27 August, demonstrated a "substantial" increase in gold grade on average in respect of the 17 samples tested, the board said.

A further 113 samples, which for completeness included samples believed to be of lower grade, had been sent to the laboratory for assay testing, with results expected to be received in the near future.

On ECR's other gold projects in Victoria, the board said the company was "highly proactive", reporting that at the Blue Moon Prospect of the Bailieston Gold Project, following a reverse circulation drilling programme resulting in gold grades of up to 17.87 grams per tonne, it had formally announced a new gold discovery.

Blue Moon was a flagship project for the company, with the board saying it was working to agree access with landowners to enable it to continue drilling to the west where its work indicated gold mineralisation could intensify.

At the HR3 Area of the Bailieston Gold Project, the company said preparation of a detailed 3D geological model for the HR3 area had been undertaken over the summer months, and was nearing completion.

When complete, the model was expected to generate "numerous" high-priority drilling targets.

On the Henry's Hill Gold Prospect of the Avoca Project, geological mapping and soil geochemistry had been completed in line with the firm's announcement on 14 August, with around 200 samples collected during the field exploration.

Geochemical analysis of the samples was set to be undertaken shortly, the board aid.

At the Timor Gold Project, ECR had announced the results of rock chip sampling with grades of up to 22.6 grams per tonne in August.

The board said the data gathered from the rock chip sampling programme, together with historic exploration data, had confirmed the prospectivity of the project, with the company now reviewing a potential drill programme over the key target areas.

"During the summer months the ECR team have been heads down and working hard across multiple areas of the business and we expect to be able to provide multiple updates in respect of field exploration and corporate development activities across our business in the near future," said ECR Minerals chief executive officer Craig Brown.

"Given the extent of activities and to keep shareholders informed we felt it would be opportune to provide an update of the key areas of progress, notably in respect of the company's Western Australia Windidda gold project and also in respect of progress at Creswick gold project which is within our large and strategic landholding in the heart of the Victoria Goldfields and where the company has highly active operations."

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